LesHamilton

Visited: July 1, 2016

Grave Mound 12 on the Westerheide has, despite a probable height of two metres, an extremely low profile as it rises very gradually. This is the most extensive mound in the heathland, with a width that I estimated to be at least 30 metres.

Visited: July 1, 2016

Grafheuvel No 11 in the Westerheide is small and inconspicuous. Completely heather covered, it could well be mistaken for a mere undulation in the heathland, rising to about 2 metres and around 10 metres wide.

Visited: July 1, 2016

Westerheide 10 is the most easterly of the grave mounds in this area, and is found on the edge of woodland, 300 metres along the main path north through the reserve and approximately 50 metres to the left.

This is a low, grassy mound, struggling to attain a height of one metre, and rather less than ten metres in width.

Visited: July 1, 2016

Grave Mound No 6 is the most northerly in the Westerheide, and a walk of 1½ kilometres from the starting point beside Mounds No 8/9. It’s a shapely grassy mound that must be close to three metres high and about 14 metres wide, easily seen on approach. Almost the entire approach is on good paths and only the final 50 metres requires a tramp through heather.

Visited: June 17, 2015

This is a tight cluster of four barrows occupying an area of 60 × 50 metres.

Westerheide Mound No 2
The terrain in Westerheide provides excellent walking over short heather and grasses so, if you are confident of your directions, you can simply make straight for the mound. Alternatively, there is a choice of paths that will take you close to it.
On approach, this green grassy mound—the southernmost of the group—stands out well against the heather, and looks rather bigger than it really is because it is perched on a natural rise in the terrain. There is actually a path that traverses it. The barrow is between 2 and 3 metres tall and some 15 metres wide.

Visited: July 1, 2016

Westerheide Mound No 3, the northernmost, is a substantial mound almost 3 metres in height and about 20 metres in width, and a virtual twin of Mound 2. The barrow is between 2 and 3 metres tall and some 18 metres wide.

Westerheide Mound No 4 is a small barrow, barely one metre tall and about 5 metres wide.

Westerheide Mound No5 is another diminuitive barrow, about 1½ metres tall, lying just a handful of metres southwest of No 4. It’s about 5 metres in width.

Visited: July 1, 2016

This is a fairly conspicuous Grave Mound, rising from the heath to a height of approximately 2½ metres. Its lower slopes are clad in heather but it has a conspicuous broad, green and grassy summit.

The map shows the walking route from the entrance to the reserve, a distance of 650 metres on good paths followed by a 50 metre walk across short heather.

Visited: July 1, 2016

Hoornboegse Heide is an area of heathland in het Gooi Nature Reserve, situated on the southern margin of Hilversum, popular with walkers, many exercising their dogs. It is easily accessible by following Utrechtseweg for 1.6 kilometres south of the city then heading to the right along Horneboeglaan. This is a narrow woodland road serving several properties on its south, but after 500 metres the trees to the north peter out and the heath (heide) is revealed.

Almost immediately two huge mounds come into view, Grave Mounds No 1 and No 2, which are so close together that they virtually overlap. The pair are fenced off, but I estimate both to be around four metres high and in the region of 20+ metres wide.

No more than 100 metres to the north, Grave Mounds 3 to 6 stretch in an east-west row. All are smaller heathery mounds roughly 2 metres tall, none exhibiting any noteworthy characteristics.

Finally, another hundred metres or so to the northwest, is Grave Mound No 7. This is wholly unspectacular and, were it not for its surrounding fence, would almost certainly disappear into anonymity as just a low vegetated undulation in the heathland.

The numbering of the mounds follows the maps of the area prepared by Museum ‘Oer’, located in Ulft, Netherlands.

Visited: July 1, 2016

De Zeven Bergjes (The Seven Little Hills) is a group of seven round barrows located in the Zuiderheide, a section of het Gooi Nature Reserve located to the northeast of Hilversum. They form a compact grouping, occupying an area measuring approximately 300 × 400 metres.

Three of the barrows (Nos 1, 2 and 7) are sizeable, and probably all in excess of three metres tall; the other four are significantly smaller. None, however, has any striking individuality, and one image only of each is included here.

Nevertheless, this area is easily accessible by a 15 minute walk from the Poolsterstraat bus halt (No 108 bus from Hilversum station), and provides pleasant walking on excellent paths. In a leisurely stroll, I visited all the barrows in three-quarters of an hour.

The grave mounds are about 4,000 years old and date from the Neolithic and the Bronze Age. In and around them have been found urns, a dagger, an axe and a beaker.

The numbering of the mounds follows the maps of the area prepared by Museum ‘Oer’, located in Ulft, Netherlands.

Visited: July 2, 2016

You will almost certainly encounter hunebed D51 Noord Sleen en route to its much better preserved twin, D50, which lies about 100 metres farther along on the opposite side of the road (Hunebedweg).

D51 is very much the poor relation in this hunebed pair: it is somewhat smaller (at 12.3 × 3.5 metres), completely lacks a ring of kerbstones, and has clearly been the target of stone robbers over the ages. All but one of the original 14 sidestones remain in place though, but of the complement of capstones, only two of the assumed seven originals are still to be seen, one still supported and the other partly slumped into the crypt. There is an entrance portal with three of its original four stones still present.

Visited: July 2, 2016

Hunebed D50 Noord Sleen is in many respects the most spectacular of all the hunebedden, not only for its sheer bulk (it measures 17 metres in length, almost 4.5 metres in width and consists of 16 sidestones and 7 of the original 8 capstones), but because it is surrounded by the most complete set of kerbstones of any hunebed. It is this ring of kerbstones that immediately catches the eye, as many of them are as tall as the sidestones in the hunebed itself, in contrast with the rather diminuitive kerbstones found at other hunebedden.

The circle is also noteworthy for the close packing of its stones which, at several places round the hunebed, stand virtually shoulder to shoulder with each other.

Hunebed D50 possesses just a single remaining stone of its entrance passage. The three missing ones have been marked by concrete slabs by Albert van Giffen.

I first visited here in 2011, and have been waiting for a sunny day to do photographing it justice on several trips to Drenthe since. This seemed to be the day, as I had just visited the Stone of Noordbarge in hot sunshine, but as I took the bus the few kilometres up the road to Noord Sleen, dark clouds gathered. I just had time to take a few photographs of D50 in reasonable light before the rain came, and then I had to beat a hasty retreat as wind and rain lashed the area.

You can read more about Hunebed D50 on Hans Meijer’s website.

This updates the link (below) provided by Jayne, which is now ‘dead’.

Visited: July 2, 2016

I finally got around to visiting this huge erratic boulder after failing miserably, on an earlier trip, to photograph it from the window of a moving bus.

I had been visiting Emmen’s zoo, Wildlands, newly relocated to a spacious park on the western boundary of the town. At the end of the visit, I set out on foot for the Steen van Noordbarge, a pleasant 20-minute walk.

The stone is easily located as it lies on Emmerweg, just a few metres east of the sign indicating the western boundary of Emmen/Noordbarge. It lies in a shallow grassy hollow, and measures 4.15 × 3.40 metres. Efforts had clearly been made in antiquity to shatter the stone for building purposes, as there is evidence of seven boreholes in it.